Marianne Moore, a Pulitzer Prize winning American poet, editor, translator, and reviewer, was greatly known for her cryptic zigzag logic, eccentric rhythms, irony, and wit. Her best-known poems feature animals and are written in precise, clear language. Because of her talent, Moore befriended many of the greatest artists and writers of the 20th century, such as T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Elizabeth Bishop, and E.E. Cummings.
Biography
Marianne Moore was born near St. Louis, Missouri on November 15, 1887. She was raised in the home of her grandfather, the pastor of Kirkwood Presbyterian Church. After her grandfather's death, in 1894, Moore and her family stayed with other relatives for two years, until 1896 when they moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania,where Moore's mother worked as a teacher at a private girl's school. In 1905, Moore entered Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and graduated four years later. She taught at the Carlisle Indian School until 1915. Later in 1918, Moore and her mother moved to New York City where Moore became an assistant at the New York Public Library in 1921.
There she began to meet other poets, such as William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens. Then Moore began to publish poetry professionally. Some of her selected works include: Like a Bulwark, Nevertheless, O to Be a Dragon,Observations,Poems, Selected Poems, Tell Me, Tell Me, The Arctic Fox, The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore, The Pangolin and Other Verse, and What Are Years?
Poems
The Mind is an Enchanting Thing
is an enchanted thing
like the glaze on a
katydid-wing
subdivided by sun
till the nettings are legion.
Like Giesking playing Scarltti;
like the apteryx-awl
as a beak, or the
kiwi's rain-shawl
of haired feathers, the mind
feeling its way as though blind,
walks along with its eyes on the ground.
It has memory's ear
that can hear without
having to hear.
Like the gyroscope's fall,
truly equivocal
because trued by regnant certainty,
it is a power of strong enchantment. It
is like the dove-
neck animated by
sun; it is memory's eye;
it's conscientious inconsistency.
It tears off the veil; tears
the temptation, the
mist the heart wears,
from its eyes - if the heart
has a face; it takes apart
dejection. It's fire in the dove-neck's
iridescence; in the inconsistencies
of Scarlatti.
Unconfusion submits
its confusion to proof; it's
not a Herod's oath that cannot change.
By Disposition of Angels
Messengers much like ourselves? Explain it.
Steadfastness the darkness makes explicit?
Something heard most clearly when not near it?
Above unparticularities,
these unparticularities praise cannot violate.
One has seen, in such steadiness never deflected,
how by darkness a star is perfected.
Star that does not ask me if I see it?
Fir that would not wish me to uproot it?
Speech that does not ask me if I hear it
Mysteries expound mysteries.
Steadier than steady, star dazzling me, live and elate,
no need to say, how like some we have known; too like her,
too like him, and a-quiver forever.
O to Be a Dragon
If I, like Solomon,...
could have my wish-
my wish... O to be a dragon,
a symbol of the power of Heaven-of silkworm
size or immense; at times invisible.
Felicitous phenomenon!
Analysis
The Mind is an Enchanting Thing
By Disposition of Angels
O to Be a Dragon
Personnel
Reaction
Poetic
Devices
Used
Moore symbolizes the dragon as a genuine
poet which she wishes to become.
Rhyme
Scheme
ABACCD
AAABCDD
ABCDEF
Historical
Context
N/A
N/A
This poem recalls the biblical dream in
which the Lord appeared to King Solomon
and said, "Ask what I shall give thee."except
Moore is asking for her wish instead.
Theme
This poem varies a paradoxical theme:
"certainty" and "inconsistency." Moore
uses recurring abstract words like "truly
unequivocal,"and "trued by regnant
certainty," to articulate the paradox.
In this poem Moore states a star is perfected
by the darkness. This pertains to the bond
between man and women because only when
they are together do they shine brightest.
The theme of this poem is Moore's wish to
become a dragon. What she means by
this is she wishes to become "a symbol of the
power of Heaven," like all other genuine
poets.
Resources
Grace Schulman. The Poems of Marianne Moore.
New York: Viking Penguin, 2003. Print
Table of Contents
Born: November 15, 1887
Died: February 5, 1972
Biography
Marianne Moore was born near St. Louis, Missouri on November 15, 1887. She was raised in the home of her grandfather, the pastor of Kirkwood Presbyterian Church. After her grandfather's death, in 1894, Moore and her family stayed with other relatives for two years, until 1896 when they moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where Moore's mother worked as a teacher at a private girl's school. In 1905, Moore entered Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and graduated four years later. She taught at the Carlisle Indian School until 1915. Later in 1918, Moore and her mother moved to New York City where Moore became an assistant at the New York Public Library in 1921.
There she began to meet other poets, such as William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens. Then Moore began to publish poetry professionally. Some of her selected works include: Like a Bulwark, Nevertheless, O to Be a Dragon, Observations, Poems, Selected Poems, Tell Me, Tell Me, The Arctic Fox, The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore, The Pangolin and Other Verse, and What Are Years?
Poems
The Mind is an Enchanting Thing
By Disposition of Angels
O to Be a Dragon
Analysis
Reaction
Devices
Used
poet which she wishes to become.
Scheme
Context
which the Lord appeared to King Solomon
and said, "Ask what I shall give thee."except
Moore is asking for her wish instead.
"certainty" and "inconsistency." Moore
uses recurring abstract words like "truly
unequivocal,"and "trued by regnant
certainty," to articulate the paradox.
by the darkness. This pertains to the bond
between man and women because only when
they are together do they shine brightest.
become a dragon. What she means by
this is she wishes to become "a symbol of the
power of Heaven," like all other genuine
poets.
Resources
Grace Schulman. The Poems of Marianne Moore.
New York: Viking Penguin, 2003. Print
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/96
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mmoor.htm
http://www.graywolfpress.org/Related_Content/Book_Excerpts/Excerpt_from_Can_Poetry_Matter?/